60% of criminals on short prison terms will re-offend

NEARLY 60 per cent of criminals ­given short sentences will commit at least one serious offence within the first year of release.

Justice Secretary Chris Grayling is concerned about the re-offenders [PA]

Shocking figures from the Ministry of Justice show how the penal system is allowing petty offenders to become major criminals by failing to supervise them after they leave jail.

In the past decade a staggering 35,835 convicts went on to commit ­serious offences after less than a year in jail, costing the economy £10billion a year, Home Office figures show.

Each year more than 60,000 criminals are given sentences of less than a year for theft and violence ­offences. On average, they will have committed 16 crimes before going to jail.

Justice Secretary Chris Grayling said: “We currently have a situation where thousands of crimes are being committed by offenders who have ­already broken the law. Unsupervised, some of them are going on to commit some of the most horrible crimes.

“We have to stop this depressing merry-go-round of crime, offending and re-offending.”

A National Audit Office report has criticised the justice system for wasting money on short sentences.

It says they cost taxpayers £300million a year but do not give “value for money” or reduce crime.

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We have to stop this depressing merry-go-round of crime, offending and re-offending

Justice Secretary Chris Grayling

The 2010 study found nearly half of all short-term prisoners spent all day in their cells. Little was done to help them break their pattern of ­behaviour during or after their time in jail.

Now new laws going through Parliament will ensure all offenders are ­supervised for a year after release – ­including, for the first time, those who have been inside for a few months.

Offenders will also be sent to prisons near where they are going to live following their release.

The latest figures from the Ministry of Justice show 356 short-term offenders carried out serious violent or sex offences in 2011. A further 2,482 were involved in crimes like robbery. In one case, a serial drug dealer with 20 convictions was freed from court ­because he had started a garage business.

Stoke-on-Trent Crown Court heard Bobby Machin, 26, was found on a toilet trying to flush away cannabis when police raided girlfriend Amy ­Simpkin’s house in Burslem, Staffs, last year.

The penal system is allowing petty offenders to become major criminals by failing to supervise them [GETTY]

Police seized two small amounts of cannabis, mobile phones with texts about trading drugs and £615 cash.

Both pleaded guilty to supplying cannabis, and Machin also admitted obstructing a police officer.

Peter McCartney, defending, said: “There has been a massive sea change in his attitude. He has attended a Prince’s Trust enterprise project and has set up a garage.”

Machin was given 18 months in jail, suspended for two years, and Simpkin, 28, got a 12-month community order.

But his neighbours in Smallthorne, Staffs, slammed the sentences.

Sue Harris, 63, said: “How can we tell children that drugs are evil when criminals get soft justice like this?”